Union says UF moving too fast in filling faculty spots

Wednesday

May 14, 2014 at 10:32 PM

The recruiting, interviewing and hiring to fill 25 percent of the 120 pre-eminence positions authorized by the University of Florida over the summer is moving along at a "furious pace," Provost Joe Glover has told faculty members.

By Jeff SchweersStaff writer

GAINESVILLE -- The recruiting, interviewing and hiring to fill 25 percent of the 120 pre-eminence positions authorized by the University of Florida over the summer is moving along at a "furious pace," Provost Joe Glover has told faculty members.But officers of the UF chapter of United Faculty of Florida said the process is moving along at too brisk a pace — leaving faculty input in the dust in violation of the collective bargaining agreement and the spirit of shared governance."Historically, faculty has been in the driver seat when assessing peers," said Susan Hegeman, an English professor and the newly elected president of the faculty union. "The concern is when a lot of faculty are on nine-month appointments, we may be elsewhere and have other obligations while all this hiring is going on, and that some of this hiring is being done without proper consultation."Faculty have already allegedly been excluded from the recent hiring of six non-pre-eminent professors in the College of Engineering, according to a grievance filed in April by the union.The grievance claims that six hires in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering — five of them from Clemson — violated the union contract.The board of trustees voted in March to hire six computer science professors, five from Clemson University. The grievance claims all six hires violated the requirements of the collective bargaining agreement.The contract requires the vacancies to be advertised and an applicant pool created for a search committee to look at, the complaint said. "The hiring process for one individual and for five in a group of individuals for the Computer and Information Science and Engineering Department did not meet this and related requirements" in the contract, the complaint said.Oscar Crisalle, a chemical engineering professor and the union's grievance officer, said he didn't want to disclose the names of the hirees because it isn't their fault the rules weren't followed."We don't want to harm any hire who arrived at the University of Florida through no fault of their own by a process that was not clean and transparent, and not involved faculty," he said.A hearing has been scheduled for Friday, said Bill Connellan, director of academic support services at UF and the university's chief negotiator.Connellan said he couldn't go into specifics but that the hearing would give the union a chance to provide testimony and discuss ways to resolve the matter. If there is no resolution or common ground, the union can seek arbitration, he said.The Legislature created the pre-eminence program in 2013, granting pre-eminence status to any of the state's public universities that met at least 11 of 12 academic and research criteria. UF met all 12, and FSU met 11, entitling each to $15 million a year over five years to hire new faculty and make other investments to increase their national standing.The Legislature this year raised that amount by an additional $5 million a year. With an additional $3 million authorized by UF President Bernie Machen, the university gets $23 million this fiscal year ending June 30 to recruit and hire top faculty in targeted fields such as big data, nutrition and security. UF has authorized 120 new faculty positions, Glover said.The money has been released in two waves:$13.3 million in December to hire research faculty in 16 key areas including the McKnight Brain Institute, "Big Data," cybersecurity, life sciences and food security.$4.7 million in January to hire in 10 areas including Online Learning Institute, social network analysis, renewable energy and storage, creative writing and African studies.Glover didn't have exact figures for the number of hires made to date but estimated that UF is well on its way to filling 25 percent of those positions by the end of the current fiscal year ending June 30.Officials should have an updated head count at the end of this month, said Chris Moran, director of communications at UF. "We're still gathering the info in one place as the colleges interview candidates and make hiring decisions," he said.In the meantime, Glover said, recruiting and interviewing will continue to be furious."Deans complain they spend a good part of each day interviewing candidates," Glover said. "I say that is a good thing. It compares favorably with the activity of the last five years when we weren't able to hire anyone."Faculty is always excited to see changes at the university and that it is going in new directions, Hegeman said. "The real trick is shared governance — who decides where the university is going to go and does existing faculty have a role in making those decisions," she said.Universities around the nation are changing in a way that less decision-making involves faculty, she said, and this is a good example of that."I'm not saying that faculty is upset with who's getting hired, but what it does say is that these hirings are happening very quickly and in some cases without following the rule book," Hegeman said.Another cause for concern is the amount of private money being raised to create more than 100 new endowments and chairs, she said.The UF Foundation has committed to raising $800 million to help create 100 new endowments or chairs.To date, UF alums and private investment banker Andrew Banks and his wife, Pamela Banks, have pledged $5 million to create several endowed chairs, and longtime UF supporters John and Mary Lou Dasburg donated $1.5 million to create an endowed professorship in the College of Engineering.Both of their donations were eclipsed by a $75 million donation by Al and Judy Warrington, longtime benefactors of the university. The College of Business is named for Warrington.Hegeman said she was concerned that donor money could limit the amount of information faculty and others can access. As an example, she cited the millions of dollars Charles Koch has funneled into the economics department at Florida State University in exchange for having a say in the hiring of faculty there — and withdrawing funding if the university didn't adhere to his views."Historically, hiring and evaluating colleagues has been a central component of the faculty's role in governing universities (along with oversight of teaching and curriculum)," Hegeman said. "All universities are now experiencing new pressures that break down this important governance role for faculty, including pressure from donors, pressure to direct research agendas toward money-making enterprises."We need to be vigilant that the pre-eminence hiring process respects this important faculty role," she said.